I Saw Him Standing There
by Pr0fessi0nal-Fangurl
Summary: Felicity is on her own raising baby Mia doing the best that she can when she gets some unexpected surprise guests that change the course of everything. What I would have liked to have seen happen post-crisis. Oliver and Felicity and their entire family deserved better than what they got.


Felicity watched Oliver walk out of the door and collapsed while sobbing onto the floor, it was as if she were dying. She saw the life she and Oliver were supposed to have flash before her eyes and she couldn't help but sob even harder. They were never going to be able to have more kids, grow old together, or even get to experience those little moments that you do when you share your whole life with someone.

She didn't know how long she sat there crying but it was long enough that her eyes ran dry and her eyes were burning. What brought her back to reality was the sounds of her daughter's cries from her nursery. Felicity drew in a shaky breath as she stood up on legs that felt like Jell-o and slowly made her way into Mia's room.

She walked into the room to see a red-faced Mia standing in her crib with big fat tears running down her face and Felicity's heart broke even more. She hated seeing her daughter in pain, no matter what kind of pain it was. She walked over to the crib and picked the five-month-old up cradling her to her chest. Mia squirmed in her arms and Felicity knew that meant that she wanted Oliver. Felicity let out another sob, though no more tears fell down her face. Mia was always a daddy's girl from the moment she was born, she would always instantly calm down the moment she was in Oliver's arms. Mia would never get to feel that again. She would never get to experience that feeling of being completely and utterly safe while being in her daddy's arms.

"We are gonna get through this bug, daddy's coming back. He has to, I have to believe that." Her brain was telling her that it wasn't probable, that there was a high chance Felicity would never see Oliver again. However, Felicity had to believe that she would see him again. because if she didn't believe that she was going to break down and she couldn't do that. It wasn't just her that she had to think about, there was someone else that was depending on her now.

Felicity's mind instantly went to William, about how less than an hour ago she and Oliver were talking about the option of maybe trying to get custody of him. She could at least try and fight for custody over William. She didn't care that they weren't biologically related, she couldn't imagine being able to get through this without him. Oliver and William were always her guys and always would be, and that meant fighting for each other. Even if Wiliam didn't want anything to do with her, she wasn't for one moment going to let him think that she didn't want him.

Felicity rocked Mia back and forth. After half an hour of her sobbing, she finally cried herself to sleep but Felicity couldn't seem to put her down. She stared down at her sleeping daughter wondering how she got so lucky. No matter what mood she was in she could always look down at Mia and somehow feel at peace. Looking down at her daughter's peaceful and sleeping face she knew that she would do whatever it took in order to make this work. It wasn't going to be easy but she could do it.

* * *

**ONE MONTH LATER**

"Come on sweetheart, you aren't hungry and you don't need a diaper change. What's wrong, baby?" She asked, rubbing her hand gently up and down Mia's back in the hopes that she would calm down but it was no use. Mia wouldn't stop screaming and Felicity couldn't figure out why. The only thing that she knew for sure was that she was on her last string of patience. She was also beginning to wonder where this kid got her set of lungs from because she was going on an hour of straight screaming.

It was moments like these that the absence of her husband was abundantly clear. She could really use some help and Oliver always knew exactly what to do to help her out. Whether it came to doing the laundry or the dishes or simply just taking over for her so that she could _shower_ he always knew what to do.

It had only been a month but it had felt like an eternity without him by her side. Mia's screams died down slightly but it didn't do much for Felicity's migraine that was pounding behind her eyes. She couldn't tell if the tears cascading down her cheeks were because of the pain in her head or that she was missing Oliver. She collapsed onto the couch and started sobbing along with Mia. If this situation were different she might find this comical. The fact that both her and Mia were side by side sobbing their eyes out would have been a funny scene if she didn't feel so numb.

She couldn't think of anything she'd done in the last month that wasn't out of necessity. She looks at her computer sitting on her desk in the corner and aches to move her fingers over the keyboard, finding some sort of purpose, but she couldn't. Every time she sat down to even try and find out where William was she would get flashbacks of being down in the bunker, back when she actually had Oliver in her life. It was something that she wasn't prepared to actually confront or think about yet, so she just stared at the desk and suddenly she felt like she couldn't breathe.

Felicity set a still crying Mia down in her rocker as her heart rate skyrocketed and sharp shooting pains started to fill her chest. She gripped her shirt and squeezed her eyes shut as her breathing became shallow to the point of her hyperventilating. The only thing that she could focus on was the memories that kept shooting through her mind's eye as she started to sweat. It felt like she was having a heart attack, like she was dying. But she knew better, she knew what this was. She was having a panic attack and the only difference between now and all of the other times that she has had one was that Oliver wasn't here to talk her out of it.

Normally, Oliver would see her starting to panic and would instantly be by her side, trying to comfort her and talk her down from the edge. This time she didn't have that luxury, all she had was herself and, at the moment, she wasn't the most reliable. The only thing that seemed to calm her down is thinking about Oliver's arms wrapping around her and giving her that safe feeling. Like nothing could ever touch her or hurt her, just as long as they were together.

Felicity focused on her breathing, taking deep breaths so that she could calm down after who knows how long of being in a pure state of panic. It was then that she started sobbing, no longer able to hold it in. She then noticed that Mia had finally calmed down. Felicity looked and saw she was fast asleep in her rocker and she breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that it would stay that way for a while. Then she might actually be able to get some shut-eye.

Felicity stood up and started cleaning up the trashed living room when there was a knock on the door. She immediately looked at Mia, hoping that she had not woken up from the noise, but it looked like she was down for the count. Then Felicity realized that she wasn't expecting anyone and it was very rare that someone would come over to talk to her and suddenly her heart rate sped up again. After so many years of living on the edge, scared of the next threat, it was hard not to be on high alert.

She walked towards the door, trying to regulate her heart rate and her breathing once again. She didn't need another panic attack at the moment or she really wouldn't be able to function for the rest of the day.

She threw open the door to find the absolute last person that she would have ever expected to be on the other side of the door simply standing in front of her. She stood there in shock, unable to believe that he found them.

"What the fuck?" Felicity says, without giving it a second thought. She was too exhausted to have a filter. She stares across the threshold and right into William's eyes, who has honestly looked a lot better.

"Well that's definitely one way to greet your son," William says, standing outside with a backpack and a duffle bag in hand. It's another couple of minutes before Felicity can even comprehend what was happening. William was here and standing in front of her. She had been wanting to find him for a month now, but just wasn't ever able to get herself to do it and now here he was standing in front of her.

"How did you find us?" She asks, stepping to the side so that he can come inside, completely forgetting about Mia and that William knew nothing about his baby sister.

William was about to answer her question until he saw the state of the living room with all of the baby toys and then he noticed the sleeping baby in a rocker beside the couch. He stared at the infant, not knowing what to do or say.

Felicity knew the moment that Willaim saw Mia sleeping in her rocker, he immediately stopped and froze in place. Felicity closed the front door and moved over to the 16-year-old. Felicity knew that this day was going to come eventually, she was just hoping that Oliver would have been here too. He would have been able to offer her support and help her through this moment. The moment where she had to tell their son that they have another child and never told him about it.

Felicity walked up behind him and gently placed her hand on his shoulder as she moved around him to get a good look at his face. He looked exhausted, with bags under his eyes and his hair looking like he hadn't brushed it in days and had merely been running his hands through it. A habit that he had developed from Oliver she had noticed. She could tell that he had been traveling for a decent amount of time just by the state of his clothes.

She suddenly realized that his grandparents were probably worried sick and looking for him, wondering where he had gone and run off to, but she couldn't help but wonder why he left in the first place. What had happened that had made him pack a bag and track her down so that he could come and see her? It also occurred to her that she needed to tell him about Oliver and that he wasn't here. That there was a chance that none of them will ever see him again.

Felicity sighed and shook her head, focusing on the present and the fact that she needed to explain her's and Oliver's decision not to tell William about Mia. He deserved to know why he was only finding out about his little sister now.

"Your dad and I wanted to tell you together and in person. We didn't want to tell you in a voicemail that you more than likely wouldn't listen to that I was pregnant and that you were going to be a big brother," Felicity explained, hoping that he would understand that this wasn't something that you just sprung on someone. That they didn't do this to hurt him either.

"I wouldn't have ever gotten the voicemail even if you did," William said finally, looking away from Mia and right into Felicity's eyes. When their eyes met, she could plainly see the hurt and betrayal behind his eyes. She stared back, wondering once again what happened with his grandparents that sent him to her.

"Will, what happened with your grandparents? It's obvious that you have run away from home. I'm sure that they are worried sick about where you are," Felicity asked. Moving around him so that she was standing in front of him, she put on her best mom no-nonsense face.

Will just smiled at her and chuckled, he really had missed her and his dad. He even missed her scolding him because it meant that she cared, he knew that his grandparents cared about him but they had both lied to him for 2 years. Making him believe that Oliver and Felicity didn't want anything to do with him.

"I was trying to change something on my phone one day, really I was bored and trying to jailbreak it and I found out that my grandparents had blocked both yours and dad's number. I got angry and confronted them about it. For two years I thought that you and dad wanted nothing to do with me, that you were ashamed of me. Come to find out my grandparents were keeping both of you from me, they blocked your emails too. I'm surprised that I didn't find out sooner than I did, we both know how smart I am and somehow it took me a year and a half to figure it out." Will looked at Felicity and saw what he could only assume was a mix of anger and pride in her eyes.

"They both had the audacity to tell me that it was for my own good, that they were protecting me because both of you aren't good for me. So I dug into the dark web and satellites trying to find you and dad. It took me six months until I finally found this place. So, I packed my bags the moment I found you and bought a train and bus ticket and then walked five miles to get here." Will explained everything that had happened over the past six months hoping and praying that Felicity would understand.

Felicity quietly listened to his explanation and suddenly everything made sense. Her and Oliver had expected him to freeze them out for maybe a month, but not forever. They never gave up, constantly calling and sending him emails, but now it made sense why he never replied. She doesn't agree with his grandparent's method but she does understand why they did what they did. Ever since becoming a parent, she would do absolutely anything to make sure that William and Mia were safe and out of harm's way, even if that means lying to them.

"Where's dad? I figured that he would be here when I got here. I was hoping at least. I have missed him and his terrible dad jokes." William asks looking around as if trying to find him.

Felicity wasn't expecting that question, it was so out of left field and she wanted to have as much time as she could with him. She didn't know how to break to him that his dad was gone, that now both of his biological parents were gone from his life, most likely forever. She knew that she needed to tell him, especially after what his grandparents did lying to him for so long, he deserves to know. But that didn't mean she wanted to tell him.

"Before I answer that, Will you need to call your grandparents," Felicity started. When Will looked at her like she has gone crazy, Felicity put up her hand to stop the teenager from saying anything else.

"Listen to me, if the situation was reversed and you had run off without telling me I would expect whoever you ran away to go and see to force you to at least call me to tell me that you were alive and safe. So, if you really want to stay here, then that's what you have to do. Plus I don't want them thinking I kidnapped you or had anything to do with you showing up here or they might actually try and fight for custody and that's the last thing we want." Felicity finished and stared at him, not willing to stand down on this subject.

Will sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to give this up. He needed to call his grandparents if he wanted to stay, which is what he wants more than anything. "Even if they fought you guys for custody they would lose. They always grant custody to a biological parent."

It took Felicity every ounce of energy not to start crying at the mention of Oliver, knowing that he wasn't here to have custody awarded to him. She really needed to tell him about Oliver before she lost her nerve.

"Speaking of your dad, Will there's something that I have to tell you-" Felicity started to say before Mia woke up and started crying. Felicity sighed, just wanting more than a ten-minute break between crying fits. Felicity walked over to the rocker and picked Mia up, the baby immediately quieted down and laid her head on Felicity's shoulder. She looked down at her daughter and kissed the top of her head, after a full hour of screaming her head off the snuggle was a welcome reprieve.

Felicity turned and saw William standing there looking nervous and almost out of place, she smiled at him and couldn't believe how grown up he was. He was 16 and his own person, it still seemed crazy to her that he was so old. She looked down at Mia and saw that she was staring at her older brother and saw that she had a nervous smile on her face, almost like she knew him.

"Will I want you to meet someone. This is Mia, your baby sister," Felicity said, looking from Mia to Will and saw that he was looking at his little sister with an enamored smile on his face. He walked towards them, finally setting down his bags as he did. Felicity looked down at Mia and saw that she was still smiling.

"Hi Mia, I'm Will, I'm your big brother." He said, finally coming close enough to touch her. Mia instantly reached out for him, which shocked both Will and Felicity. Will took Mia from Felicity like it was the most natural thing to do even though he looked terrified of the little baby.

Mia stared up at her big brother with an awestruck smile on her face and let out a loud laugh. She put both of her hands on either of his cheeks and Felicity nearly lost it. That was something that she would do to Oliver while he was still here. Felicity looked to Will and she suddenly saw the resemblance between him and Oliver. Felicity let a few tears fall down her face, not being able to control it anymore. She couldn't hold in the anguish that was sitting in her heart, ready to explode like an emotional nuclear bomb. She needed to be strong for Will though, she needed to be the adult in this situation. She needed to be a mom instead of a grieving widow, hoping that one day her husband was going to come back.

"Felicity? What's wrong? Is everything okay?" Will asked, taking a step towards her. She nodded, sniffling and wiping the tears from her face with a sad smile on her eyes.

"Will, I think you should sit down for what I am about to tell you," Felicity said and watched as the boy slowly lowered himself down onto the couch and Felicity followed suit. She sat there for a few moments trying to find the right words to use to tell him. She stared at Mia and watched as she snuggled into her brother's chest as if she didn't just meet him.

"Your dad he...He made a deal with some cosmic being. I still don't exactly understand it myself. A month ago this..._being_ showed up and he collected on his end of the bargain and took your dad with him." Felicity looked at Will and could tell that he was confused and she didn't blame him because she was still confused herself with everything that has happened.

"Will, he isn't coming back. When your dad left he said that this being, The Monitor is what he called him, he said that he saw your dad's-" Felicity let out a sob, not being able to finish her thought. Saying it meant that it was real and that this wasn't some extremely bad nightmare.

"He saw your dad's destiny and that it was for him to die in this crisis. In order for everyone to survive he needed to…" She couldn't finish without seeing it in her mind's eye, her dreams for the last month were filled with Oliver dying in every way imaginable.

William looked at her pale as a ghost, his eyes wide and tears pooling in the corners. Felicity thought it hurt when Oliver told her he was leaving but watching Will try and digest this information hurt her more. Seeing the devastation on his face. The grief and lost chances, seeing your children hurt was the worst kind of pain. Knowing that there wasn't anything that you could do to help them.

"I was so awful to him the last time that I saw him, I should have told him how much I loved him, how much he meant to me," Will said letting the tears stream down his face not even bothering to wipe them away.

Felicity moved closer to him and put her hands on his cheeks so that he would look her in the eyes, somehow her heart broke all over again looking into his grief stricken and regretful eyes.

"Will, listen to me, your dad knew how you felt. He knew that you loved him and he knew that you didn't mean any of those things that you said to him. He loved you with his whole heart and nothing could have changed that, not any amount of words or actions would have changed his mind. No matter what happens, remember that. All that he ever wanted for you was to be happy, whatever that means for you." Felicity felt a weight lift off of her chest by telling him this. Even though she could see that he was still in a lot of pain, she knew that they would have each other. The two of them would get through this together, because nothing would keep them apart this time.

* * *

**THREE MONTHS LATER**

To say that the last three months had been a whirlwind would have been a major understatement. Felicity did make William call his grandparents but didn't make him do it right away. She let him wait a few days before she stole his phone and dialed his grandparent's number for him so that he couldn't somehow back out because he was scared.

The next month was spent with Felicity convincing them that it was safe where they were and that William wasn't going to get into any trouble or be in any sort of danger. The only danger he would be in was the danger of being completely and utterly bored because this small town had absolutely nothing to do for about 30 miles. After three and a half weeks, his grandparents finally broke down and decided that maybe it would be good for him to stay there with her and his baby sister.

Felicity was more than relieved when they decided to have William stay with her. She hadn't realized how lonely she was until William came along. Having someone around the house to help was a huge relief but it was also nice to have someone other than a baby to talk to. She had him enrolled in the local high school and was teaching him to drive; which alone was a truly terrifying thing. Their days at the moment were incredibly mundane, but compared to how they were before, neither of them were really complaining.

Even though a day didn't pass that she didn't wish that Oliver was here to witness this, things finally felt normal again. She didn't wake up every morning depressed and wishing that she could go back to sleep because she didn't have the energy to exist without Oliver by her side. She had Will there to help out and, more importantly, she had him there to reminisce with. Every night, while she rocked Mia to sleep, they would tell the little girl stories about her daddy. It had become a sort of a ritual for them and was slowly but surely helping them heal.

It was now January and after three months they are all in a routine and it was working out well for them, Felicity was finally beginning to really smile again. She could look at Mia and see Oliver in her eyes and not want to start sobbing. Instead, she could rejoice because she had the best parts of Oliver in both her kids and that was all that she could have asked for.

It was the middle of January and northern Washington had just gotten a large amount of snow so William had the day off of school and they were all bundled up and playing outside. Mia learned how to walk just a month ago but she could barely navigate in the snow which was up to her waist. Still, she seemed to be having the time of her life with William. Felicity watched both of them with a smile on her face knowing that life didn't get much better than this. The only thing missing was Oliver.

"Mama! Mama!" Mia screeched happily. Hearing her giggle was one of the best sounds in the whole world. She smiled brightly at her daughter and joined both of them in the snow. She picked Mia up and gently threw her up in the air, catching her effortlessly.

"Hi, baby, you having fun in the snow with Will?" Felicity asked the little girl.

"Um!" Mia shouted and pointed to William, making everyone laugh including herself. Mia had just started talking and the only words that she knew were, 'mama', 'hi', and 'um' but she let everyone know that she could talk. She was like Felicity in that way, you could rarely get the little girl to be quiet for more than a few seconds.

Felicity saw something out of the corner of her eye coming out of the woods and turned to see what it was. Felicity assumed that it was going to be one of William's friends but it was, in fact, the last person she ever expected to see again. Oliver. He was standing there on the edge of the woods, a smile on his face, as he watched the three of them play in the snow.

Their eyes met and tears instantly came to her eyes as her arms gave out. Luckily William caught Mia before she could freefall into the snow. Felicity just stared at him, not sure whether or not she was dreaming. Was he actually there? Was it even possible? Was she just imagining him because she wanted nothing more than for him to be there with them? She couldn't trust her own mind at the moment because she wanted this to be true. She wanted him to actually be there standing before them.

William looked in the direction of where Felicity was staring, wondering what caused her to freeze and drop Mia. He saw him in an instant, his dad. Felicity explained to him what had happened, who took him and why he left. She had said that he wasn't going to come back, yet here he was standing in front of them.

"Dad!"

Without a second thought, William set Mia down and ran towards Oliver as fast as he could through the eight inches of snow. He crashed into his dad and the two men threw their arms around each other, clinging to each other like there won't be another chance.

Felicity watched the scene in front of her and she knew that she wasn't crazy, he was actually here and standing in front of them. Seeing William and Oliver embrace caused Felicity's tears to fall down her face, she was so happy that they were getting this moment to see each other again after everything that happened. William talked about the regret and the guilt that he felt surrounding the last time that he saw Oliver often and she was so happy that he was going to get the chance to reconcile with him.

Felicity was brought back to the present when she heard Mia cooing as she played in the snow. She bent down and picked up the baby and smiled as she looked down at her. She wasn't going to have to grow up only knowing Oliver from the stories that her and William had been telling her. She was going to get the chance to know her dad. That was all she wanted at this point for her daughter, for her to know how much her dad loved her.

She wasn't even sure how long Oliver and William spent hugging each other until they finally pulled apart and Oliver finally looked back at Felicity. He had tears in his eyes as his gaze moved to the baby in her arms. This time she couldn't resist it, she ran to him, nearly tripping more than once because of the snow and her not caring about anything else other than getting to him.

She crashes into him harder than William did and it nearly sent both of them tumbling to the ground with the force of it. They were both aware of Mia who was cuddled into Felicity's shoulder, not knowing the intensity of the moment she was in the middle of. Felicity let out a sob as she clutched the back of his shirt, thinking that she might rip it. They were both crying in each other's arms, not being able to believe that this moment was actually happening.

"Please tell me that this is real and that I'm not dreaming. I wouldn't be able to take it if this wasn't real." Felicity begged, she wouldn't be able to handle this if she woke up and this was all a dream and she was still all alone.

"This is real, honey, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere," Oliver replied, letting one of his hands travel up the back of her jacket. The warmth of his hand proved to her that he was actually real. He knew that she needed to hear him say it and he would do absolutely anything to prove to her that he was telling the truth. Oliver had no intention of leaving his family anytime soon after everything that had happened and the universe nearly ending. He needed to just be in his wife's arms. It was the one place that he felt truly safe from everything, he pulled back just enough to kiss her like his life depended on it and she melted into the kiss all the same.

Neither one of them was sure how long they stayed like that but they finally pulled apart and his eyes instantly found baby Mia. He let out a little sob seeing her so small after fighting side by side a grown-up version of her. He never thought that he was going to see her little face again and here she was. Getting to look into his daughter's eyes again after nearly seeing the life drain from them less than a week ago, was the best feeling in the world. Even now he could see her fierceness and courage behind those gorgeous blue eyes that didn't have any sort of pain in them like they did before.

"Hi there, Mia, I have missed you so much," Oliver said to her lightly touching her cheek. Mia stared back at him, everyone was watching to see what Mia's reaction was going to be. After a few moments of just staring at him with a blank look on her face, it was like she recognized who he was. She smiled a three-tooth smile and giggled as she threw herself into Oliver's arms.

The three adults laughed as Oliver took her in his arms and hugged her to his chest, Mia snuggled into her daddy's chest like everything was finally right in the world. Oliver would never stop thanking the world, or the monitor, or God, or whoever the hell gave him this chance back. When he left a few months ago he was certain that he was never going to see his family again and now here he was with everyone that he loved the most.

The four of them stood there finally as a family and it felt like nothing could ever ruin this moment. Oliver and Felicity were finally getting a real chance at retiring from vigilante life and raising their family together, nothing was in their way this time. No Monitors or crisis' to tell them that they had to make yet another sacrifice, finally, they could be together as a family and nothing would ever beat this feeling that all four of them were feeling; content.

They all knew that no matter what life threw at them they would be able to get through it as long as they were all together.


End file.
